Consumerist

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etfs

"An 'Illegal ETF' Destroyed My Credit. Can I Go To Small Claims Court?"

"Jurgis" writes,

Now that the California Courts have ruled that ETFs are illegal, does Consumerist have any advice for consumers, like me, who have an outstanding ETF debt with a non-Sprint carrier?

More »

3:36 PM on Mon Aug 4 2008
By Chris Walters
12,209 views, 23 comments

expedia

Expedia's "New York From $58 A Night" Offer Is Bunk (Beds)

Expedia says they can get you room and board in NYC for $58 a night. Amy at NewYorkology looked into what such a low, low price actually gets you, and it's not pretty: think hostels, co-ed group rooms, mice, bunk beds, and generally dirty environments. If you're undaunted by college-lifestyle travel, Amy points out that there's one cheap hostel listed that has some good reviews, but since we're talking about ultra-budget hostels here, a good review actually includes the phrase, "best of all NO ROACHES!!!" More »

12:35 PM on Sun Jun 15 2008
By Chris Walters
4,490 views, 22 comments

Latest by Nakko: Yeah but if you want to live the hostel / college student special / el cheapo grande, even then, you more »

hotel ratings

Hotwire Facing Possible Class Action Lawsuit For Selling 2-Star Rooms As 3-Star

A reader forwarded us an email that indicates a class action motion is being prepared against Hotwire, the discount travel company, for promoting hotel rooms at artifically high ratings. On Hotwire, you can't preview the hotel before booking, so the star rating is really all you have to go on—and there's at least anecdotal evidence online that Hotwire has been known to be more lenient in its rating system. Though Ryan says he's gotten some good deals through Hotwire, he adds, "I do recall booking a room around Christmas in the 2.5 to 3 star range and getting La Quinta (which as we all know is spanish for 'near a Denny's'), which is listed as a two star hotel." More »

12:20 PM on Fri May 30 2008
By Chris Walters
4,559 views, 42 comments

Latest by n/a: I've booked a couple times with hotwire. Although hotels are decent, always get a smoking room. Yuck. I don't book more »

grand theft auto iv

Activist Who Once Called Video Games "Killographic" Praises The ESRB Grand Theft Auto Rating, Boos Proposed $5,000 Fine

Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star has located a more reasonable voice to weigh in on the GTAIV controversy in (surprisingly enough) National Institute on Media and the Family founder, David Walsh. Walsh has been praising the ESRB for its "improved enforcement of not selling M-rated games to kids,” and says he trusts the ESRB's "M" rating for Grand Theft Auto IV. More »

1:52 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Meg Marco
3,662 views, 29 comments

Latest by drjayphd: @Xkeeper: Oh, come on, Super Sperm Bros. was a CLASSIC and you know it. :P more »

credit reports

This Is Why You Don't Use FreeCreditReport.com

Jesus from South Texas signed up for credit monitoring at the notoriously scammy FreeCreditReport.com. He never received the confirmation email and wasn't able to access his account, so he never used it, but forgot to call to cancel it. After three months he realized he was being charged $15 a month as per their terms of service, so he went to their site to retrieve his login credentials and was told the account didn't exist. After that, it took him 4 calls to get the account canceled, and they would only refund him for one month of service. One of their CSRs tried to scare Jesus into keeping the account open because there had been some "suspicious activity" in his credit history that he'd be wise to monitor. Then they told him there is no phone number or email for their "customer satisfaction department"—it can only be reached through snail mail. More »

5:58 PM on Fri Mar 28 2008
By Chris Walters
16,549 views, 60 comments

Latest by billin: "One of their CSRs tried to scare Jesus..." Now that's what I call chutzpah! Jesus: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall more »

id theft

Chart: "10 Largest Data Breaches Since 2000"

The info-loving people at Flowing Data pulled the figures on data breaches (available at Attrition.org) and created a chart showing the top 10 biggest breaches in the past eight years. The most disturbing trend, which probably will surprise few Consumerist readers, is that the breaches are increasing in frequency. More »

9:39 AM on Mon Mar 17 2008
By Chris Walters
3,551 views, 6 comments

Latest by n/a: It is time for consumers to stand up and demand that our personal information is owned by ourselves, and that more »

ratings

America's Test Kitchen Picks The Best Commuter Mugs

While watching TV yesterday and moaning about how lazy we are, we saw a review of commuter mugs (free registration required) on "America's Test Kitchen": "We ordered 11 mugs of different materials, shapes, and sipping structures and organized a battery of tests designed to define the ideal mug, which left us feeling a little like test drivers as we careened around corners trying to spill the coffee or dislodge the mugs." (Yes, they like the royal "we" too!) See their testing criteria, as well as their top two picks, bottom rung losers, and oddball favorite after the jump. More »

1:07 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Chris Walters
6,539 views, 35 comments

Latest by BruinEric: I need a car mug that has no handle, and where the freaking lid doesn't dribble coffee on my shirt more »

product testing

Air Purifiers That Work, And Ones That Don't

Consumer Reports tested 40 air purifiers by locking them in a closed room and filling it with smoke and dust—in other words, they recreated this writer's childhood Christmases when Granny would visit with her angry poodle. Here are Consumer Reports' selection of the best and worst devices. More »

1:14 PM on Fri Dec 7 2007
By Chris Walters
7,008 views, 18 comments

Latest by n/a: @deviationer: You have to be employed by Sharper Image, crazy, or both. Their (lack) of quality is frequently played for more »

credit scores

Meet The Woman Who Devised The New FICO Scoring System

SmartMoney has a feature this week about Susan Blue Hitt, an Austin-based math nerd who loves football, flies planes, and is responsible for the revised FICO scoring model "that will change the way credit scores are calculated, affecting interest rates for 160 million Americans" sometime next year. More »

6:31 PM on Mon Nov 26 2007
By Chris Walters
6,008 views, 18 comments

Latest by Mr. Gunn: humphrmi: Incorrect. Fair, Isaac, and Co. is the only provider of FICO. CRAs do have their own versions more »

security

Is It Necessary To Freeze Your Credit?

We focus so much on identity theft and safeguards against it that it may seem like freezing your credit is the only solution in a world of identity thieves. That may or may not be an accurate assessment (ask me the next time my credit card is duped), but credit freezes aren't for everyone. Consumerism Commentary offers a sort of beginner's guide to the topic for readers who are trying to decide if it's right for them. More »

7:04 PM on Wed Nov 21 2007
By Chris Walters
1,866 views, 9 comments

Latest by Crushmeguy: I use TransUnion's TrueCredit monitoring service which, among other things, allows me to freeze and unfreeze my TransUnion report with more »

The Consumer Data Industry Association estimates that 50-70,000 people have frozen their credit reports so far. Here's our post on how to freeze your own. [WSJ]

Comment

privacy

Tivo To Start Sharing Demographic Data

As a product, Tivo is easy to love, even root for. As a company, they're sliding further down that slippery slope of privacy invasion. According to the Wall Street Journal, today Tivo will announce that they're going to start making detailed demographic customer data available to advertisers. They already sell second-by-second data on viewing patterns, but so far it's been anonymous; now it will come with information about viewers' ethnicity, age, income level, etc. As far as we know, they have no corresponding plan to compensate their customers for selling this data. [Update: It turns out Tivo is pulling the demographic data from a group of 20,000 volunteers, and the compensation is the chance to win a free Tivo. (Thanks, Megazone!)] More »

2:55 PM on Thu Nov 8 2007
By Chris Walters
1,080 views, 35 comments

Latest by MegaZone: @Chris Walters: Personally I participate in a number of consumer panels - Synovate, IPSOS, etc. Most of those have more »

advertising

People Watch Commercials!

Networks have been saying that they deserved credit for "time-shifted" viewing because people who use DVRs don't always fast-forward through the commercials. Turns out they were correct. More »

1:25 PM on Wed Oct 17 2007
By Meg Marco
4,047 views, 46 comments

legislation

Bill Would Let Victims Of ID Theft Seek Restitution

Yesterday a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that would "let victims of identity theft seek restitution for money and time they spent repairing their credit history," as well as remove some existing barriers to prosecuting criminals. More »

1:24 PM on Wed Oct 17 2007
By Chris Walters
1,188 views, 9 comments

ratings

Top 5 Dark Chocolate Bars

We already know that dark chocolate is good for you. Now, thanks to the "trained panelists" (what are they, monkeys?) at Consumer Reports, we have a list of their picks of the best dark chocolate bars on the market. Their #1 pick is a bit surprising: Cacao Reserve by Hershey's Extra Dark. Really? Hershey's? More »

2:15 PM on Fri Aug 10 2007
By Chris Walters
7,629 views, 48 comments

Latest by n/a: I found a Dove Organic Dark Chocolate bar with Spices about 2 months ago. The problem is I can no more »

ratings

Buying A Quality Umbrella

Inspired by the early morning thunderstorm that flooded half of New York City's ancient subway system (seriously, we think some of the F line dates back to the Romans), we felt it was a good time to re-examine our latest umbrella. Our verdict? "Not broken yet," which is good enough for us. But if you're in the market for a new one, Slate has a handy consumer reports-style comparison of ten umbrellas across the entire range of prices, from $3 to over $200. Yes, you can indeed buy an umbrella for over $200—but if you can afford that umbrella, surely you can afford to move to another country whenever it rains. More »

4:25 PM on Wed Aug 8 2007
By Chris Walters
2,995 views, 24 comments

Latest by KRS: The late, lamented Uncle Sam's had English brollys with frames made by Fox that I used for years, but I've more »

ratings

5 Portable Air Conditioners Ranked

Portable air conditioners are good when you need to cool only a single room in your home, or when you live in a studio with a crummy wall unit and no central heating/ac, or when you go camping. They also free up the view out your window. On the downside, they recycle "inside air," require a drainage tube or a bucket, can be noisy, and make it look like you have a dorm fridge in your living room. Slate reviews five mid-range portable units (between 9,000 and 12,000 BTUs, or enough to cool between 350 and 550 square feet). More »

12:11 PM on Wed Aug 8 2007
By Chris Walters
5,674 views, 8 comments

Latest by Promethean: I recently had to buy a portable. As these things go, the unit is very much a "glass half full" more »

lawyers

New Lawyer-Rating Site Avvo Already Under Fire

Advertising "Free ratings and profiles for every lawyer so you can choose the right lawyer," Avvo promises to guide consumers to the "right lawyer" like Consumer Reports guides consumers to the right shampoo. Avvo was controversial from the get-go, and called a flat-out scam by Seattle class-action lawyer Steve Berman, who is now suing Avvo for deceptive practices and violations of Washington's consumer protection laws. More »

1:14 PM on Fri Jun 15 2007
By consumerintern
1,921 views, 20 comments

Latest by Eyebrows McGee: @Crazytree: "any comments on Martindale-Hubbell?" My understanding is that M-H surveys attorneys about other attorneys, and that there's a lot of more »

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